Greater New Orleans

MATTHEW HINTON / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE
A shrimp boat modified as a oil skimmer or "Vessel of Opportunity" collects oil from the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill close to a mile from the shore of the Mississippi River Southeast Pass as seen during a helicopter tour by Plaquemines Parish Coastal Zone Management Director P.J. Hahn Sunday June 27, 2010

WASHINGTON -- After the 2010 BP oil spill, the Coast Guard received 534 recommendations to improve response to similar disasters. But a new report by the inspector general (IG) for the Coast Guard's parent agency says faulty documentation makes it impossible to determine how many of those recommendations have been carried out.

And it says that the Coast Guard "could not be certain" whether it had implemented recommendations from previous disasters, 1996 Cape Mohican Oil Spill and the MV Cosco Busan Oil Spill in 2007, both off San Francisco. Both incidents prompted follow up reports calling on the Coast Guard to conduct better outreach with local officials and stakeholders.

During the 2010 BP oil spill, some local parish officials said information from the Coast Guard was often late and, in their view, full of gaps.

The 2010 oil spill, the largest in U.S. history, took 11 lives, and spilled oil into the Gulf for 87 days.

According to the inspector general's report, the Coast Guard was responsible for addressing 534 recommendations made by Coast Guard officials, industry experts, and a presidential commission appointed to examine the disaster.

The IG said the Coast Gaud reported it had completed action on 127 of the 534 recommendations, and that 247 recommendations were in process of being implemented.

The IG said it did not check the progress on the 247 recommendations that were in the process of being implemented, but did look into the 127 that the Coast Guard said have been completed.

"We reviewed documentation provided by the Coast Guard and other information and determined that 51 of those 127 correction actions addressed the recommendations, the report said. "For the remaining 76 recommendations, The Coast Guard provided incomplete documentation, potentially because it had to deconstruct initiatives into original recommendations to respond to our request. Therefore the (IG) team could not determine whether the corrective actions addressed these recommendations."

The report doesn't indicate what specific recommendations it evaluated in terms of determining compliance.

The National Commission of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, as part of a long list of recommendations, said the Coast Guard and Department of Energy needed to develop in-house experts to oversee containment operations after a well blowout.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Ms., the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said he is disturbed by the IG findings.

"This report uncovers mismanagement at the Coast Guard as the DHS component has dropped the ball on implementing substantive changes post-Deepwater Horizon," Thompson said. "With over 500 recommendations to tackle, the American people expect the Coast Guard to actively track progress and complete these recommendations so history does not repeat itself. Instead, it seems that almost four years later, the Coast Guard has completely ignored hundreds of recommendations -- all of which aim to prevent, or lessen the impact of, future spills."

The Coast Guard said it agreed with the recommendations in the IG Report and would take actions to better track how recommendations after a disaster are implemented.